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Mansurizade Mehmed Said (Turkey, 18641923) was a religious scholar and politician whose radical ideas on polygamy and other issues caused heated debates during the second Ottoman constitutional period (19081918). Born into a family in Izmir that had produced many ulama (religious scholars), Mansurizade Said followed the same path, gaining fame for his knowledge of Arabic literature and jurisprudence and serving on the regional appeals court. He also wrote for modernist journals and newspapers, arguing that Islam was not an obstacle to progress, and that it could be reconciled with...

Mansurizade Mehmed Said (Turkey, 18641923) was a religious scholar and politician whose radical ideas on polygamy and other issues caused heated debates during the second Ottoman constitutional period (19081918). Born into a family in Izmir that had produced many ulama (religious scholars), Mansurizade Said followed the same path, gaining fame for his knowledge of Arabic literature and jurisprudence and serving on the regional appeals court. He also wrote for modernist journals and newspapers, arguing that Islam was not an obstacle to progress, and that it could be reconciled with modernization. In 1907, Mansurizade Said worked with the secret Committee of Progress and Union, and after its rise to power in the revolution of 1908, he served in various official capacities, including negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian government over its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also taught Muslim jurisprudence at the Law School in Istanbul. Mansurizade Said was elected to parliament twice from Saruhan and once from Mentepe, serving from 1908 until 1918. In 1914, he was seriously considered for the office of Shaykh al-Islam, the chief religious authority of the Ottoman Empire, but was not appointed because of his radical religious views, which had caused an outcry in Islamist circles. Among these views was his position that polygamy could legitimately be banned in an Islamic country, as expressed in a series of articles excerpted here.1